Honor and Desire (Gold Sky #3) - Rebel Carter Page 0,55
eyes filled with question. He leaned closer to her and touched her arm. “I was calling to you, but you were somewhere else.”
“I was thinking,” she supplied, quickly unfolding the paper in her hands, but she was still unable to focus on the script it held.
He nodded. “I could tell as much. Was my list too…” his voice trailed off and she looked at him then, the uncertainty in his voice drawing her out of her storm of thoughts.
“Too what?”
August looked uncomfortable and swallowed hard. He leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees, body folded close in on itself. The posture was so reminiscent of childhood that she smiled at seeing it. August was a big man, but to see him now like this was reassuring in a way she hadn’t been aware that she needed.
He was a man, her new romantic interest, but most of all he was still August.
“Demanding,” he finally said and Seylah sat up straight, her back coming off the bench with all the posture of a ramrod.
“What?”
He sighed and rubbed at his temples, his head hanging low between his hands. “It is, isn’t it?”
Seylah’s smile vanished and she frowned in confusion and turned towards him then. “What is?”
“My list,” he said gesturing at the paper she held. “I knew it would be. We don’t have to--”
“August, wait, I haven’t--” Seylah held up her hand and took in a deep breath, “no, it’s not the list. This list is...” She dropped her eyes to the paper, eyes skimming over the words to see what August had written. What could have brought him to such worry?
Fighting not allowed.
Allowed to escort to work and home after work.
Allowed to take to lunch every work day.
Weekly horse rides following church.
Courtship with intention to marry.
She looked up at him to see that August was watching her intently. The man was bracing himself, scarcely breathing, and Seylah gave him a rueful smile when she saw the uncertainty in his eyes.
“The list is what?” He asked.
“Not demanding.”
“It’s not?”
“Not at all.” She smiled at him and held the paper close to her chest. “I like it very much.”
August’s body relaxed. “Truly?”
Seylah nodded her head. “Truly. I like your list,” she told him. Seeing the words August had written assured Seylah that he wanted what she did, their lists were normal and in step with who and what they were, and had been to one another.
“I was worried that you might think my list was too simple,” she admitted, “but seeing your list makes me feel better about all of this. I was quite worried earlier.”
“Why?” August asked. He moved closer until they were sitting in a mirror image of the other, papers in hand, bodies angled towards the other, knees touching slightly, earnest looks trained on the other.
“Old insecurities,” Seylah said quietly. “There’s no other reason for it. I thought you would find my list simple. Something that would bore you once the novelty of us wore thin.”
“Novel or not, a life with you would never bore me”
“What people desire changes.”
August shook his head. “A life in Gold Sky is what I’ve always wanted.” He reached for her. “You are all I have ever wanted.”
Seylah sucked in a breath at the heartfelt words and she looked down at the paper she had been clutching.
Courtship with intention to marry.
It struck her then, staring down at those five words that this was not a passing fancy for August.
“You would want to marry me?” She asked. “I mean to say, if we suited.”
He nodded, dropping a hand to hers that rested beside them on the back of the bench. “I do. And I am quite confident we will suit. We already do.”
“When we aren’t bickering.”
He nodded and settled back in his seat. “Yes, when we aren’t bickering, but seeing as that problem appears on both of our lists I think we can manage to come to an understanding.”
“That means you would be my husband,” she informed him helpfully, and he grinned at her.
“I am well aware of what titles we would be awarded if we were to marry.”
“You want a family,” she told him. It was no secret that August wanted to be a father, that he had always envisioned a home full of laughter and closeness, a house that was so very much like her own. If August intended to marry her, meant to have her as a wife, wanted a home with her, a place where the two of them would be together, where they